This invention relates to a method and apparatus for oxidizing ammonia to form nitric oxide.
Presently, nitric acid ranks tenth among all chemicals produced in this country with a current production rate of about 6.8 million tons per year. Ammonia oxidation to form nitric oxide from which nitric acid is produced presently is the only economic method for producing nitric acid. The oxidation of ammonia is a highly exothermic oxidation reaction wherein enormous amounts of chemical energy are transformed into thermal energy. It would be desirable to recover the energy of the reaction as electrical energy rather than thermal energy since electrical energy is far more useful in applications other than maintaining the oxidation reaction. In addition, the direct recovery of electrical energy would eliminate presently required steps for converting the thermal energy into electrical energy. In addition, it would be desirable to provide such a process which effects substantially complete conversion of ammonia to nitric oxide without the formation of undesirable by-products such as nitrous oxide, nitrogen and/or hydroxylamine.